I've always thought about it, but never thought I could actually do it. I worry a LOT about socialization. Recently, and for no other reason than I hate the constant sickness that runs through the house during the school year, I have thought about giving it a shot just to keep our house healthier. Even if it's just temp.

I don't know if it matters, but I've got a lot of education, so I'm not so worried about lacking the knowledge. I've held a job in the past where one of my primary roles was to give some classes/teach people (though we were all adults & it wasn't something I had a choice in/could NOT do if I wanted to not do it). I'm more worried about actually getting it done (procrastinator here) & not leaving my kids behind - how do you stay on top of it/make sure you stay on track & don't get behind? And also the socialization issue. We are in the country & I cannot drive so I guess I feel limited in that sense.

Honestly I think homeschooling takes a lot of dedication. While it doesn't revolve around specific times like PS, I do make sure HSing is not an area I procrastinate with because I want my kids to be, at the very least, on the same level as their peers. Sometimes laundry slips, my house isn't always perfectly clean, and dinner may be 15 minutes later than I would have liked.

In my house I am the primary teacher since I am a SAHM. How do your children get to school now? I'm not sure how you could handle socialization without driving. I just got my license this year. That was a requirement I gave myself to homeschool.

How old is/are you child(ren)?

__________________

HSing mama to + +
& one angel who grew wings before their feet touched the ground

Honestly I think homeschooling takes a lot of dedication. While it doesn't revolve around specific times like PS, I do make sure HSing is not an area I procrastinate with because I want my kids to be, at the very least, on the same level as their peers. Sometimes laundry slips, my house isn't always perfectly clean, and dinner may be 15 minutes later than I would have liked.

In my house I am the primary teacher since I am a SAHM. How do your children get to school now? I'm not sure how you could handle socialization without driving. I just got my license this year. That was a requirement I gave myself to homeschool.

How old is/are you child(ren)?

They ride the bus to school. Driving is not an option for me due to medical issues. They are currently in 1st & 4th.

Glad TJR hopped on this thread and replied. I am going to disagree w/ TJR on a few things though.

I am also one who recently started driving but I was HSing my DDs for a few yrs w/o driving. Why do you need to drive to socialize? Do you have neighbors whose houses you can walk/bike ride to? Can you arrange for people to either come over to your house or give you rides? What about doing the socialization when DH is home and can drive all of you?

I am a procrastinator as well and I know procrastination carries into homeschooling. My DD has a letter she needs to write to her penpal and I said I was going to do it earlier this wk and never did. I am really going to try to get it done today. Things like this happen to us often where I say I will get it done and it takes much looonger to actually get to it. I have the attitude oh well it got done late but it got done. Then there are things that don't get done and I say oh well maybe they weren't so important after all. You care about your children SO much and you will do everything in your power to help them succeed.

I am the SAH parent and my DH works outside the home so it works out that I do most things w/ my girls. We are relaxed homeschoolers who do our own thing. My girls are free do different things throughout the day like reading, drawing and playing outside. We really like how this lifestyle works for us.

Feel free to ask us more questions and realize there are SO many different ways to homeschool. What works for one family may not work for another.

I don't drive at all. I could, but we have a mini-van and I can't/won't drive it. For several years I could not drive at all while doctor's tried to diagnose me and then while I waited for meds to work and for my seizures to be under control. Right now I have permission to drive anything I want and I can go to work and drive tractors if I want (and sometimes I do) but I will not drive that mini-van. I gave up my car during the diagnosis process as one of the doctors I was working with told me I would never be allowed to have a driver's license again and having the car was a financial hardship at the time anyway (long story). I regret that decision now as I will never be able to replace that particular car for such a good deal but whatever. We are a one car family and the car happens to be a mini-van for better or worse. We "socialize" in the evenings and on the weekends. Somehow, and I didn't plan it this way, we wound up with something planned for every single day of the week and sometimes double booked. It started with TKD a few days a week and wound up with dh as a partner at our TKD school so we are there almost every day for 3 hours. Then we added roller derby for ds2 plus family skate night on Tuesdays and we are grateful to have just free time/school time while dh is at work during the day. We can walk to places (mostly just the park across the street) or friends can come see us but mostly we just stay home during the day. I admit to being incredibly anti-social. I am the product of public school and did not learn to properly socialize. I do have an excuse, at the very least I have social anxiety disorder but some people say I may be aspie. My oldest child is ASD and socializes far better than I do. We just don't worry about socialization.

I can be a procrastinator, it is in my nature. More than anything I get caught up in other things, like right now I should be cleaning but I am on the internet. And later I will probably get distracted organizing instead of making a shopping list, it's just what I do. To prevent this from being a huge problem I make lots of plans and then hope that at least half of them work. We have a pretty structured routine and luckily at least my oldest is good at following it (ASD kids like routines, he doesn't require it like some but he will follow it so long as he can see it). My youngest hates routines but as long as he has an idea for flow of the day I can get him into something. He is presently a year ahead of his peers so I am trying to be laid back about this. It is hard for me as I am a bit of a control freak.

In our home I do all of the teaching with the exception of PE which I guess you could say dh teaches since that would be TKD time. Our kids get tons of PE. I'm the SAHM so I'm the teacher. If I am really burnt out dh might help but since we always have something to do in the evenings there really isn't much time for dh to work with the kids. It is ok, he has a hard time with the teaching thing. He is smart, he just doesn't know how to give direction in non-physical areas. He tends to be a very "watch what I do and copy it" kind of guy. He and ds1 like to watch physics lectures together though so that is something.

www.time4learning.com was suggested by some helpful HS'ing mamas here to me and it has been a lifesaver for us. It helps me keep the kids on track and they like it...it's what we use for homeschooling here now and there's nothing else to buy to go with it - no other textbooks, workbooks, etc.

I am the main teacher here, but DH helps when he's off or in the evenings. We are in the country too - but I do drive. I was worried about socialization, but then pulled him out and realized I was more worried about the negative impact of socialization in PS than what he was missing out on being HS'ed. We don't have any neighbors really being in the country, but we do participate in a co-op group one day a week so he's around other like minded kiddos one day a week. We go to church where he sees other kids and he's got several siblings. Bottom line is if you want to and decide to...you can do it .

Thank for all the feedback, ladies. It is super helpful. I think that whether I move fwd w/HSing or not, I can still utilize so many of these ideas in our lives.

As for the question of visiting neighbors, that's not really an option. We aren't close enough to walk to neighbors, but I could def find a work around for DH to drive places.

Is there an area to find the acronyms you ladies are using? Some of them I am unfamiliar with.

I will keep checking this & I do have some questions to add, but need to get some other things done right now. I really really appreciate all of your honest replies. It's been difficult to find "real" answers to things - people I have encountered either are very against HSing for some reason or have been so over the top about it, instead of offering me information, I feel like I am being criticized b/c I am not doing things the way they are/PS is wrong/etc.

We recently started doing some HSing for some subjects. We have a very flexible charter school in our area that allows for this. So we're able to do a mixture of home schooling and public schooling. This is a good combo for us because my student is SUPER social and likes being at school with friends.

I don't think I would have ever had the guts to do this except for the fact that HSing is very big in my area and I have several good friends who do it. Their experience has been invaluable. They have been able to recommend curriculums and give me courage I've learned that there are really a lot more educational choices out there these days. There are so many curriculums, there's online school, home schooling co-ops, etc. If you have any friends that HS I would talk to them.